


oh, baby of mine

by buckybear (eds_spagheds)



Series: one-shots that make endgame hurt more [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Baby Names, F/M, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Deserves Better, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Sad with a Happy Ending, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 23:53:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18861502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eds_spagheds/pseuds/buckybear
Summary: pepper and tony discuss baby names(set almost a year after infinity war)





	oh, baby of mine

**Author's Note:**

> for the sake of this story, pepper and tony have been married for about four months or so and pepper got pregnant a few weeks after the wedding. also even though they never confirmed it, i tend to hc that may survived the snap so here you go

> “We already decided on one, didn’t we?” Tony mused, quirking his eyebrow as he refilled his coffee cup in the kitchen. Pepper, now just four months away from her due date, was flipping through pages of a baby name book on the sofa.

“Honey, we said we were going to have the gender reveal be a surprise. That means we need more than one name,” Pepper chuckled, glowing. As much as Tony had been overjoyed at the news that his wife was expecting, Pepper was ecstatic. She loved her husband and she’d wanted to be a mother ever since she was a little girl, so everything in her life was falling into place.

“But the name Morgan works for a boy or a girl, Pep. That’s the best thing about it!” Tony explained, turning around and chugging his coffee afterwards. Pepper cringed at the way he drank piping hot black coffee like it was water.

“Tony, wouldn’t you rather we have at least one more option for each? Even just for fun?” The man in question rolled his eyes, but eventually smiled, hopping over the back of the sofa like a teenager and plopping down beside Pepper.

“You’re gonna’ break your back one of these days,” she grumbled under her breath with a smile that somehow broadcasted content and a decade of annoyance at the same time.

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m busy carrying this baby name process,” he sassed, receiving a smack in the face from one of their decorative pillows. He held up his hands in a weak defense as his wife continued to throw all of the pillows she wasn’t using at him.

“Tony,” Pepper warned.

“Fine, fine, just hand me the book,” he caved, his wife flipping to a new page and reading off a few names she liked.

“Michael?”

“Nope, I had a grumpy butler named Michael as a kid.”

“David?”

“Too biblical.”

“Olivia?”

“My dad had a mistress named Olivia for a while.”

Pepper sighed, turning even more pages and tearing out sticky notes she had used to mark the now-rejected names.

“Taylor?”

“Too basic.”

“Henry?”

“Sounds like a member of the royal family.”

“Tony, are you seriously just going to turn down every name that isn’t Morgan?” Pepper interrupted, exasperated.

“No,” he sighed, dragging his hands down his face. “No, I’m just...being negative I guess. It’s fine, I’ll try to be more optimistic, just give me some more.”

“Isaac?”

“Not bad, I guess. It might make a good middle name too.”

“Claire?”

“My great grandmother’s name was Claire. It’d be nice to use another family name.”

Pepper smiled at her husband’s new reluctant, yet slightly more open-minded approach, but she bit her lip and paused for a moment before suggesting one of the names at the top of her list.

“How about Peter?”

Tony froze, his posture going stiff. His eyes that were trained on the window behind Pepper seemed to gloss over and become vacant and hollow. They didn’t talk much about Peter anymore. According to Tony, it just hurt too bad.

“ _Peter_ ,” Tony all but whispered. The name felt so foreign on his lips that he wondered what had changed along the way that made it so hard to hear the kid’s name. He blinked a few times and Pepper pretended not to notice a couple of tears begin to fall. She instead grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. “A-after my Peter?” His eyes seemed to finally meet her own, but this time with an almost guilty excitement behind them.

She smiled softly. “Of course, Tony.”

He smiled weakly, brushing away what was left of the tears in his eyes.

“Peter Stark,” he spoke as if it was something he’d thought about for years. Pepper knew he had. If fact, she knew deep down that Tony wouldn’t hesitate to keep Peter’s memory alive in any way he could. “It’s perfect, Pep.”

Her heart felt so full as they sat there side by side, just her and her husband and their beautiful baby.

She really did love the name Peter. There were just so many good things associated with it. It reminded her of her favorite bedtime story as a little girl, _Peter Rabbit_. Still, as much as she loved that, she loved how it reminded them both of why Tony realized he wanted to be a father.

Pepper had always known since she was young, but Tony took a bit more convincing. Peter Parker broke his shell and showed him he could be an amazing dad. And _damn_ if she didn’t love that kid.

If their unborn child ever turned out to be anything like that boy, she’d be the luckiest mother in the world. The least she could do to thank the kid for all the joy he brought into her husband’s life was to name their kid after him. Besides, Tony already had all the nicknames picked out.

Tony was still hung up on using Morgan if it was a girl, but he didn’t need any more convincing on what their possible son’s name would be. And if it made him break down about the events on Titan for the first time in months, Pepper knew it was just because using him as their child’s namesake would mean he was really gone.

When she called and invited May Parker to visit, she explained what they were planning on doing. She told them how they were waiting for the baby to be born to know if it was a boy or a girl, but that if it was a boy...they wanted to name him Peter. May had cried when she heard her nephew’s name, having felt the grief of losing her son every time she returned to their empty apartment and walked past his perpetually empty bedroom. But she was thrilled. She didn’t hesitate to assure Pepper that Peter would be so honored and that it was a beautiful way to carry on his memory. The two women caught up for the first time in a long time, and if Tony avoided the pair until May went home, it wasn’t to be rude, but rather out of guilt.

May didn’t have any ill will towards Tony, but she definitely understood why he wouldn’t want to see her. Hell, every time she looked in the mirror she saw how her smile lines had begun to fade. It was no secret that without Peter, she hardly had much to smile about. Normally she would love to have fading wrinkles, but they reminded her of how much her boy made her smile. When Pepper asked her to be a part of their child’s life, it made her truly smile for the first time in months.

In the end, they had a beautiful baby girl named Morgan. She had sparkling eyes just like her father and a smile that made her round cheeks swell just like her mother. She was everything they could’ve possibly dreamed of and more. Pepper had never felt more joy and love in her life than she did when she held her newborn daughter in her arms with her husband at her side, May on the other, Rhodey seated at the end of the bed, and Happy carefully keeping watch at the door. Tony told her the night after Morgan was born, as he rocked her in his arms, how badly he wished Peter could’ve met her.

They both knew she would grow up knowing about her older brother, but there would always be a hole in their family. And if one day, they wanted to have another kid, they already had a name picked out. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! i had a random burst of inspiration at like 11pm last night and wrote this whole thing, so i hope y'all enjoy! 
> 
> as always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! also, feel free to request additions to this series either in the comments or on my tumblr @krustywhore :)


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